Bob Giloth has worked for nonprofits for thirty years with a focus on community economic development. As a practitioner and social investor he is interested in the preconditions and challenges of good strategy and implementation -- values, partners, timing, complexity, and mistakes.

Friday, October 9, 2009

Jobs Plan

"Therefore, we are actually short 10.7 million jobs needed to return the unemployment rate at the start of the recession."

Testimony Given By Lawrence Mishel, President of Economic Policy Institute, "The Safety Net and the Recession," In a Hearing Before The House Ways and Means Subcommittee on Income Security and Family Support, October 8, 2009.

And think of how many more jobs would be needed to spur full employment in our cities and rural communities.

Mishel offers a five-part plan for "large-scale job creation:" extending unemployment benefits, aiding states to prevent massive public-sector layoffs, a jobs tax credit for employers who add employees, and more spending on infrastructure.

And the fifth element: "We need direct creation of public service jobs. It is time to put people to work in jobs that benefit local communities and make good use of human capital. This is a direct and cost-effective way to create jobs.Congress funded jobs for 750,000 people in communities across the nation in 1978, and a bigger program is needed now."

There's been no targeting of jobs to the unemployed in low-income communities so far in the various parts of ARRA and stimulus funding. A public jobs program could be constructed in such a way to make sure this happens -- not just that the higher unemployment numbers for these communities are used over and over to justify more general policies.